Care Building(s). Ambivalence and ambiguity in post-welfare urban austerity

This article examines the impact of urban austerity on public real estate management and citizen action. Drawing on the notions of ambivalence and ambiguity, it argues that post-welfare urban austerity produces hybrid arrangements in which citizens, associations and public institutions co-manage spaces and services. These practices simultaneously sustain neoliberal governance and generate infrastructures of care. Based on comparative research in French and Italian cities, the article argues that public buildings constitute a crucial arena in which the material, political, and moral dimensions of post-welfare urbanism are negotiated.